The lost vote

The fact that the bullet was eaten by a supporter of the Republican candidate is not to be deplored because, to be practical, it is one less vote. If it goes that way, the same can be said of the Democrats, assuming the shooter was planning to vote for Biden. It is a matter of perspective with identical results because if Trump loses votes by bullets, Biden does so as soon as he opens his mouth. What we should be lamenting is the degree to which violence has taken hold in the most advanced civilisation, our own, to the point of crossing red lines on a journey of no return. We have moved from constructive criticism to reprobation on mere ideological reasons. The next step was the demonisation of the adversary and from there we went straight to status conversion. There are no longer rivals, but enemies. We opened the door to insults and disqualifications, disrespect and the vulgarisation of offence. The penultimate stage is aggression and, now that we are trying to physically eliminate those who do not think the same way, all that remains is the last station, the final stop of a collective madness, armed confrontation, war, destruction, misery and death. 

Hatred is the vector that distinguishes us and the excuse to justify acts that should be legally and morally condemned without palliation. To think, design and execute a mission whose objective is the death of a rival is to consciously enter the realm of terror. 

Our ancestors did not shed as much blood or suffer as much injustice, as many rigours, to end up as those they fought against. We can sin in many ways, that is what religion and faith are for, to forgive and redeem. However, to put up walls and despise the human condition for having a different point of view makes us soulless, unprincipled beings of flesh and blood. 

We are animals with the intelligence to avoid conflict and generate prosperity, but we have decided to put our intellect at the service of evil out of laziness, ignorance and cowardice, which inevitably leads to a sectarianism that does understands no vaccines. 

Wishing Trump's death is just as harmful to a society as congratulating a hypothetical heart attack suffered by Pedro Sánchez or a fatal horse accident by Santiago Abascal. We have effective mechanisms to punish those who commit crimes and, in the case of Sánchez or Macron, to give two examples, there would be nothing worse for them than the deprivation of liberty. 

Longing for the disappearance of others is what makes us losers and traitors to our own values. To seek the extermination of those who are, live, think and speak otherwise is to embrace darkness and gloom. In Pennsylvania, Trump has lost one vote, the Democratic Party another, but there is no technical tie. The shootings illustrate our defeat because we have failed to stop the momentum that takes us back to the worst moments of contemporary history. In the middle of the 21st century we have been transported to the heart of the 1930s, a sinister period in which we were guilty of displaying our baser instincts. Back then we were much more cultured, better educated and aware of what we were doing, or so we thought until, sixty million dead later, we had no choice but to seek solutions so that the hecatomb would never happen again. Our world, the world of the good guys, the world of freedom, justice and the free market, found the formulas, imperfect no doubt but effective and much better than the doctrines of the others, Soviets, Cubans and communists of all kinds and conditions. 

Now, today and probably tomorrow, those who survive will have to look in the mirror and give an account to their conscience before doing the same to God for having sown everything that distances us from our human condition. We should rejoice that Trump is still alive and Pedro Sánchez is ruining us all. There will be time to have a party when the former wins or loses the elections and the latter goes to prison in Soto del Real. Before that, if we want to be what we pretend to be, we have to start by washing ourselves and removing any trace of contempt and extremism because the worst thing is not to lose a vote because of a bullet, but because of a disappointment.